March 29, 2024, 10:52:25 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register
News:

Arturia Forums



Author Topic: Online All-Mg Space Jam Saturday September 13  (Read 11564 times)

rlainhart

  • Apprentice
  • Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 11
  • Karma: 0
    • http://www.otownmedia.com
Online All-Mg Space Jam Saturday September 13
« on: September 10, 2003, 06:32:55 pm »
Jordan Rudess, Dream Theater keyboard virtuoso, and Richard Lainhart will be performing live online with old and new Mg instruments exclusively, including Mg Modular V, in a classic electronic space jam streaming live on the Internet. For more info:

http://www.otownmedia.com/otownlive/

Thanks!

Anonymous

  • Guest
Online All-Mg Space Jam Saturday September 13
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2003, 09:35:56 pm »
will you be recording any of this for later braodcast or mp3 download?

docdan

rlainhart

  • Apprentice
  • Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 11
  • Karma: 0
    • http://www.otownmedia.com
Online All-Mg Space Jam Saturday September 13
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2003, 06:29:55 pm »
We will be recording it, but given that it's a free improvisation, we'll wait to see how it turns out before we commit to making it available online. If it goes well, we'll see....

docdan

  • Guest
Online All-Mg Space Jam Saturday September 13
« Reply #3 on: September 14, 2003, 12:29:22 pm »
OK, so how did it go? I am intrigued to learn, as live MMV appearences, or documented uses in a final music track, seem to be a bit thin on the ground. Could we have a short 'teaser' of how it sounded?

docdan

rlainhart

  • Apprentice
  • Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 11
  • Karma: 0
    • http://www.otownmedia.com
Online All-Mg Space Jam Saturday September 13
« Reply #4 on: September 15, 2003, 11:33:52 pm »
It went very well, I think. We played continuously for about 70 minutes, and had about 35 listeners, as far as I could tell, from all over the world. Some of them had some connection problems, which I suppose is inevitable, unfortunately, but most had a good listening experience. Jordan and I are going to get together to listen to the recording and possibly edit it before making it available online somewhere. When we do, I'll let you know.

I don't think you'd find the sound disappointing. The jam itself went from pure sonic exploration, to jamming over melodic and percussive sequences, to more "conventional" harmonic and melodic improvisation. Jordan played both his Model D and Voyager MiniMgs, often simultaneously, while I played the MMV almost continuously, with just a little Theremin (I'm not much of a Theremin player.) As such, it was often difficult to tell who was making which sounds, although he tended to confine himself to melodic lines (the MiniMgs are monophonic, after all) while I tended to play more chords, sequences, and abstract sounds.

If you're interested, there are some pictures of the jam posted on Jordan's site at http://www.jordanrudess.com/diary.html

At times it got very dense and heavy - the MMV is capable of some very heavy low-end sounds, as long as you have a fast enough machine to support lots of FM and polyphony. I developed most of the sounds on a G4 Powerbook 800 MHz, but found that the FM sounds especially would max it out pretty easily. I borrowed a Compaq dual 2.2 GHz desktop system for the performance and fortunately never had a problem with CPU overload, even in the densest sections, playing both sequences and chordal parts. I used a Kurzweil 2500 as my controller, along with a Malletkat in one section - the Kurzweil has 8 programmable sliders that I set to control things like filter frequencies and resonances, VCA levels, and delay feedback, so I had lots of realtime control at hand and could change several parameters at once while playing, rather than having to rely on the mouse and single parameter control.

I have to say I think the MMV is a fantastic instrument. I learned synthesis on Mg systems years ago, and working with the MMV was a real treat for me - not just for nostalgic reasons, although that's certainly a factor, but because with these kinds of instruments you have such immediate and initimate control over all aspects of the sound. I used only a few presets in the performance, but designed them for the performance so that I could modify the sound as much as possible in realtime while playing, and so I was able to constantly vary the sound spontaneously in a way that I think would be very difficult with digital synths. We both had a great time, and will probably do it again soon. We'll be sure to post the information here if it's appropriate.

fisdan281

  • Apprentice
  • Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 3
  • Karma: 0
Online All-Mg Space Jam Saturday September 13
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2003, 10:55:03 am »
Very much looking forward to hearing what you did!

dan

mmyers

  • Apprentice
  • Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 4
  • Karma: 0
Space Jam Questions
« Reply #6 on: October 12, 2003, 03:52:14 pm »
Hey, I was one of the 35 lucky people who listened to the jam.  It was incredible!  I'm wondering about a few things:

Did you have a preconceived idea of which direction the music would go or did you just go for it?

On the Modular V, did you use factory presets or your own patches?

Will there ever be anymore of these improvisations?

Thanks,
MMyers

rlainhart

  • Apprentice
  • Apprentice
  • *
  • Posts: 11
  • Karma: 0
    • http://www.otownmedia.com
Online All-Mg Space Jam Saturday September 13
« Reply #7 on: October 21, 2003, 06:30:22 pm »
Thanks for tuning in, and for your kind comments. We're glad you enjoyed it!

The music was completely freely improvised, and we had no pre-conception other than to go for about an hour, and to adhere to the "space jam" concept. What that meant to us was to go for longer, "spacier" sounds and structures, and to focus as much on sonic exploration as on melody, harmony, and rhythm. But we didn't even discuss that much - the only actual discussion was an email exchange that went

Me: "Do you want this to be a 'classic' space jam, with all that implies?"
Jordan: "Yes."

The MMV patches were all my own presets. I'm working on expanding them into a larger set, and if there's interest here, I'll make them available for download. I only used perhaps 6 or 7 basic presets - a couple of simple sequences and the rest keyboard patches - but designed them with a lot of realtime MIDI control and variability built in, so I could get as much variation as possible out of them in performance. I used a Kurzweil 2500 as a controller, which has 8 programmable sliders in addition to the usual pitchbend and mod wheels, and I set up the patches so that I could control the filters' cutoffs and resonance, the VCA levels, and the delay feedbacks with the sliders as I played.

We both want to do it again, but haven't set any dates yet. Jordan goes on tour with Dream Theater in January for an extended period, so I hope we can play again before then. I'll be sure to let you know here when we do. An edited version of the performance will also be available on Jordan's website soon, and I'll let you know about that too.

 

Carbonate design by Bloc
SMF 2.0.17 | SMF © 2019, Simple Machines